


Prodigy

by my-bugaboo (DumAmoVivo)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Gen, I mean sorta, Kwami Swap, Ladybug!Adrien, aged up AU, also marinetee gets the recognition she deserves, also other people, and we're ignoring logic a little bit with this one, cat!Marinette, cause i'm trash for that trope, i mean obviously, new student au, tags may be added as we go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-06-29 23:08:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19840444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DumAmoVivo/pseuds/my-bugaboo
Summary: After working for Audrey Bourgeois for four years Marinette is sure that she’s prepared to handle Gabriel Agreste. And for the most part, she’s able to manage everything thrown at her with little difficulty. Upon moving back to Paris, though, she acquires a new set of problems she doesn’t know how to deal with. One: her final year of school. Two: the newly added difficulty of moonlighting as a superhero. And three: Adrien Agreste, who hates her just as much as she hates him.





	Prodigy

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic for the ML fandom so let me know what y'all think!

Three years ago Marinette destroyed the Eiffel Tower. Of course, nobody knew that. And technically speaking she wasn’t even the one who destroyed it. She just didn’t stop the thing that did. To be perfectly honest she was more preoccupied trying to make sure her boss didn’t do anything particularly bad after being akumatized. 

Nevertheless, it had happened. She had tried very hard to push the majority of that trip to some deep corner in her mind where it didn’t plague her. After it was all over she had gone back to New York alongside Audrey Bourgeois. For the most part, she managed to successfully avoid remembering that day. The only reason she was even thinking of the incident now was because of what said person had just told her. 

“Marinette,” Audrey’s voice pulled her attention to the topic at hand once more. “Thoughts about the Paris expansion?” 

“I, uh,” Marinette couldn’t help but be excited. One isolated incident wasn’t enough to scare her away from her home. New York was amazing but she missed Paris. She missed her parents and their sweets and the sights. Just the prospect of going back was thrilling to her. “I think it’s a great idea. Paris has a lot of potential, the magazine will do good there. It’s-” 

“Those are the logistics,” Audrey interrupted, leaning forward and giving Marinette the slightest smile. Audrey very vividly remembered the day Marinette’s parents entrusting her to them. They were trusting that she would help their daughter in every possible way. They trusted that this was indeed a good thing for Marinette. And it had been. The two of them had grown incredibly close in the past few years as a result. Audrey could see the elation growing in Marinette’s eyes the second she had told her she’d be accompanying her on their move. “How do _you_ feel about us going to Paris?” 

“Happy,” Marinette let out a short laugh. “It’ll be nice being there again.” She tried her hardest to push the few worries she had to the back of her mind.

“I’m sure it will.”

* * *

Marinette looked out across a now empty office space that had been given to her over three years before. Her designs, journals, fabrics, and everything in between had officially been sent to Paris. In two days she’d be helping Audrey make preparations to start setting up Style Queen’s newest headquarters. 

It was bittersweet, to say the least. She had accomplished so much in the past few years and it felt strange to be leaving it all. No matter what, though, Marinette was sure she wouldn’t have done anything differently. There was nothing in Paris she would’ve missed anyway. Now she had grown and was ready to start new once more. 

The sound of her phone ringing tore through the silence in the room as if sensing that she was done reflecting in the empty space. A set of numbers she didn’t recognize flashed on the screen. It wasn’t something new by any means. Marinette straightened herself and cleared her throat before turning to walk out of the room. When she answered the incoming call the person on the other end spoke first.

“ _Is this Ms. Marinette Dupain-Cheng?_ ”

Her brows furrowed, aware that the person sounded familiar but not able to place the name. “Yes, it is. And who might you be?” 

Unbeknownst to her, the other person smiled. It was clear she had spent a lot of time alongside Audrey Bourgois. “ _I have an offer to make you and if Audrey is correct then I’m sure you’ll take it. Allow me to introduce myself, Gabriel Agreste.”_

* * *

It wasn’t until halfway through the flight that Marinette worked up the courage to ask Audrey the question that had been at the front of her mind since she had spoken to Gabriel Agreste. 

“Did you know?” Marinette closed the sketchbook that had sat untouched in her hands. Audrey put down her own papers she was looking through and feigned a look of innocence. Anybody else would have believed her but Marinette knew her too well. They were thick as thieves and if anybody could see through Audrey Bourgeois it was her. Nevertheless, she elaborated. “Did you know that Gabriel Agreste was going to call me and offer me a trial run with the Gabriel Brand?” 

“Not technically,” Audrey knew exactly what she meant when she asked the question. “Gabriel called me a few days ago. Said he was looking for a new perspective or something and wanted my recommendations.” 

That didn’t put Marinette at ease. She was too afraid to ask the question she really wanted to ask. Did she only get this offer because somebody important gave him her name? It was something she _needed_ to be answered and luckily Audrey seemed to catch on to what she was thinking. 

“I didn’t give him your name, at least not on its own,” That statement caught Marinette’s attention. “I gave him a list of my best employees. As I understand he also contacted other people. Gabriel simply did his research and picked you, my dear, of his own volition.” 

Marinette and Audrey were alike in many ways and this was one of them. They both refused being handed things. Audrey got to be the notorious style queen through her own hard work. It was one of the things Marinette admired most about her. The young girl had all the connections an aspiring designer could hope for. Not a single time had she used any of them. If she was going to accomplish something it was going to be through her own merit. And evidently, it was working.

* * *

Paris was nothing like New York. For starters, New Yorkers kept to themselves. They much preferred living in their own little bubble with no one to bother them. The reporters being sent could learn a thing or two from them. Every now and then a knock sounded on the door and more often than not it was someone looking for a story.

“Honestly, how does Andre keep this place afloat when it's swimming with nosy reporters with no boundaries” Audrey huffed as she slammed the door shut for the dozenth time in the past hour. The only reason she was even checking the doors was because of the shipments she was expecting. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have bothered.

“Our order for the studio equipment is due to arrive tomorrow, they want to know where to deliver it,” Marinette held the phone away from her ear. All day there had been endless phone calls with companies of all sorts. Turns out finding suppliers on your own for an entire office space was a lot harder than it first sounded like. Audrey refused to have it done by anybody else, it was her magazine after all.

“The office, obviously,” She leaned closer to the phone, making sure whoever was on the other end knew exactly what she thought. “What kind of a stupid question is that? It’s common sense!” 

Marinette shuffled through her papers until she found a map of the building that belonged to Style Queen as of a month ago. “I’ll email you the address of the offices. Everything should be delivered to the fifth floor.” A sigh escaped her as she hung up the phone and dug through all the papers until she reached the oversized calendar laying across the desk space. She was about to scribble down a note about the delivery the next day when there came yet another knock on the door. 

“Your turn,” Audrey sighed, an exasperated look on both her and Marinette’s faces. She took a pen and wrote the note down on the calendar herself. Marinette huffed as she stood and walked towards the door, mentally rehearsing her standard response of ‘information will be provided soon, we are not taking questions right now’. 

She swung the door open and her jaw dropped. Her sudden vulnerability startled even herself and she struggled to compose herself fast enough. She wasn’t starstruck, that wasn’t it. The feeling was more shock than anything else. Standing right outside the hotel room was none other than Gabriel Agreste himself. He had a reputation of being reclusive and when she opened the door, he was the absolute last person she thought would be on the other side. 

“Come in,” Marinette quickly cleared her throat and opened the door wider. “Sorry about that” 

“It’s quite alright,” Gabriel spared a glance around the room and it’s piles of boxes and slew of papers. His eyes lingered on one of the tabletops. This one was covered with Marinette’s things. His eyes narrowed on her designs, at least what he could see of them. He had no opportunity to comment on them before Audrey took his attention. Marinette watched as they greeted each other like the old friends they were. “I came to offer both my congratulations and assistance. I know how hard it is setting up shop in a new place, even for someone as seasoned as yourself Audrey” 

“Now that you’ve offered I have just the thing!” Audrey led him away from the entrance of the room and off to the side, straight towards another table covered with things. Before they could continue Audrey turned to her protege. “Marinette, dear, you know the city so much better than I do. Do you mind ordering us some lunch?” 

Marinette agreed without a second thought and walked to the table she had been sitting at before. One thing she had picked up while living in New York was eating an absurd amount of takeout food, usually in the Style Queen offices. It had only been a few days but she had already compiled a stack of menus from restaurants that offered takeout. 

The two let Marinette do her own thing and it wasn’t until she was busy looking through the menus that Gabriel took a closer look at her designs. 

“Out of curiosity,” He flipped through the pages slowly, more intrigued than he had been in anything for a while. “What else has she learned in her time working with Style Queen?” 

Audrey didn’t even attempt to conceal the proud look that shone on her face as she thought of how much Marinette had learned and accomplished in the past couple of years. “Everything. She insisted on learning from everyone, our photographers, editors, journalists, designers of all sorts.” 

“You’ve done well,” He held up a particularly good design, honestly impressed. It wasn’t perfect but it was an exceptional start. And it took _a lot_ to impress him. 

“Oh, believe me, I know,” She pointed a perfectly manicured finger at the sheet of paper Gabriel was looking at. “But those designs are all hers, I never asked her to do any of them.” 

A ghost of a smile appeared on Gabriel’s face for a split second as he glanced back at where Marinette was now ordering lunch for them. She had officially won his approval. As long as she could pass his final test.

* * *

Adrien glared daggers at the image on his phone screen. 

For a short while after he had gotten kidnapped by Style Queen things were looking better. Hawkmoth had gone underground but more importantly, his father acted like an actual father. They talked often, ate lunch together, and did _real things_ together every now and then. And then out of nowhere, he reverted back to how he was before, shutting down as fast as he had opened up.

Only...there he was, clear as day, walking right into the Grand Paris Hotel. Adrien skimmed each speculation being thrown around different sites. A mixture of anger and envy bubbled inside him. The most popular theory by far was that he was visiting Audrey Bourgeois who had just arrived from the states. 

He liked Audrey, he honestly did. She had helped him a lot and wouldn’t have minded if she was the reason behind his father leaving the house. But Adrien knew what his father was _really_ doing. He had left the house for the first time in years because of a potential employee. He had seen it written on his father’s calendar that morning. _Meet MDC at Grand Paris, 11:00 am._ He could only assume that the initials belonged to what he could only describe as a glorified assistant. 

Adrien couldn’t help but wonder what was so special about this person that his father would step foot out of their house. There wasn’t a single thing he could think of. He supposed he would be finding out soon. Written on the calendar under tomorrow was _Tour of house, 9:00 am._ He highly doubted this person, whoever they were, was anything particularly special though. 

* * *

Marinette wanted to crawl into a hole and forget she had ever made the trip to the Agreste Mansion. Here she was getting a personal tour of thee Gabriel Agreste’s workshop, on the verge of getting to work beside him, and all she could do was criticize his designs. This was the person who was about to hire her and she just spent the past ten minutes insulting the very things that he had created. 

“Ms. Dupain-Cheng,”  _ This is it _ .  _ There’s no chance of becoming a designer now.  _ Her thoughts were nothing but pessimistic. This meeting alone was an indication that she could kiss her career goodbye before it had even started as far as she could tell. “You’re hired.” 

_ That can’t be right _ , she was sure she hadn’t heard correctly. Gabriel quickly figured out that she was left even more confused than before. He didn’t elaborate though, he simply gathered up the designs he had shown her. Marinette watched as he tossed them in the garbage and pulled out two thick moleskin notebooks with only one difference between them. One was worn with papers sticking out of it while the other was brand new.

“Follow me,” He led her through the house once more, this time with a purpose. Finally, they arrived at the dining room with its oversized table. Dozens of chairs surround it but hardly any of them looked used. Now, though, he made his way towards one end of the table and motioned to the seat beside him. “Sit.” 

“I’m sorry,” Marinette started as she sat down. “What exactly is going on right now? I thought you’d be offended by my comments but you just said...I’m hired?” 

“It was a test Ms. Dupain-Cheng. A test which you passed,” He saw that she was still trying to connect the dots in her head and he explained what had just happened. “The last thing I need is somebody who mindlessly agrees with everything I do. You challenged me, gave me your actual opinions on those horrid designs. You are the exact kind of person I want to work with me, Ms. Dupain-Cheng.” 

“Marinette,” She replied, very visibly relaxing in her seat. “Marinette is fine.” 

“Well then Marinette, let me show you the actual designs for our upcoming line.”

* * *

Adrien had come to expect disappointment with anything related to him and his father. That morning had been nothing special, an utter of ‘I’ll be expecting you for lunch’ as he left for school and that was it. More often than not he ate alone with his father nowhere in sight. 

This time, however, he was surprised when he entered the house. Adrien could very clearly hear his father’s voice coming from the dining room.  _ He actually showed up,  _ he thought. He hated that he smiled at the fact. As he walked towards the room, though, his whole demeanor changed. There was another voice accompanying his father’s. It was then that he remembered the note on the calendar he read the day before.

“Good, you’re here,” He watched as his dad stood up and the girl sitting next to him followed suit. Adrien immediately recognized her from the day Style Queen attacked. She had been in the wreckage of the Eiffel Tower when he woke up and they had argued later about the comments Chloe had made. His dad continued to rub salt on the four-year-old wound, “This is Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She’s going to be working closely with every aspect of the Gabriel Brand under my direction.” 

Gabriel turned towards Marinette next. She remembered him very clearly. He was the one Style Queen had kidnapped. The one she had saved under the direction of the little floating creature she had tried so hard to forget, the same one who destroyed half of the Eiffel Tower. He was also the one who had defended the girl that called her a social climber among many other worse things. “My son, Adrien. He’s the face of the Gabriel Brand.” 

Marinette, ever the kind person her parents raised her to be, pushed any previous opinions of him aside and offered him a slightly hesitant smile as she stuck out her hand in his direction. There was a pause bordering on awkward as her hand hung in the air. Finally, and very slowly, Adrien reached up and shook it. He didn’t look the least bit interested in her or whatever else his father had to say. 

Adrien was angry. His father had lied to him. The ruse of telling him to come home for lunch was all just a ploy. What this whole encounter was, was a conveniently planned business meeting and nothing more. This girl was probably no older than he was and yet somehow here she was. She had spent more time with his father in the past two days than Adrien had in months. He already didn’t like her for that reason alone. “She’s the new assistant? Shouldn’t you have gotten someone more experienced or something?” 

“Actually,” Marinette stood tall as she took her hand out of his as if she’d been burned. Her eyes narrowed in a scrutinizing glare, one she had learned from thee Style Queen herself. A fact that was painfully obvious at that moment. “I’ve been working alongside Audrey Bourgeois for nearly four years and I’m here to help with the launch of Style Queen Paris. Maybe you’ve read some of my articles over the years.” 

“I highly doubt it,” Never in a million years would Adrien give her the satisfaction of knowing that he had indeed heard her name floating around every circle of the fashion industry for a while now. She was talented, exceptionally so, but he wasn’t about to admit it to her. “I have heard  _ your  _ story, though. How is it that you started working with Audrey? You literally bumped into her, didn’t you?”

“Luck of the draw, I guess,” Marinette was internally screaming. She hadn’t made it this far only for her achievements to be belittled by some rich kid who thought he was so great. “And how did you start modeling, Adrien? As I understand your  _ connections _ set everything up for you didn’t they?” 

He knew exactly what she was implying and hated the fact that he couldn’t even argue the point she was making because that was exactly how he had started modeling. Adrien hadn’t considered it until one of his father's more  _ influential  _ contacts offered him a lesson or two. It had been easy from there. He didn’t have a chance to think of a comment to shoot back at Marinette before his father interrupted. 

“Let’s continue with our previous talk,” Gabriel was more entertained by banter than anything. The time, however, was passing and he had a lot to discuss with the two in the next hour. He walked back to his own seat without another word missing, or perhaps ignoring, the glare the other two gave each other before sitting down in their respective places. 

* * *

“Can you believe him, Tikki!” Adrien ranted later that day to his kwami. He was sitting in the chair that belonged to his desk. Currently however it was in the middle of the room with Adrien spinning in it slowly. “ _ Her?  _ Of all people he could choose he had to pick her?” 

“She seems really qualified,” Tikki responded from her spot in front of the desktop monitors where she had looked up Marinette. Adrien stopped his spinning and took a moment to give the little creature a deadpanned look. She gave a small sigh and flew over so she was hovering right in front of him. “I just mean that I don’t think your dad hired her just to spite you.” He hated when she was the voice of reason. “Why is it that you don’t like Marinette Dupain-Cheng?” 

“Because,” Adrien couldn’t think of a single valid reason as to why he didn’t like her. Every possible point he thought of was more of a personal thing than an actual criticism. He didn’t know her well enough to have any real reason to not like her. Still, it didn’t stop him from telling Tikki all his personal reasons. “My father has paid her more attention over the past few weeks than he ever has to me. Do you know how long he spent researching people for this job? He’s never cared that much for anything that I’ve ever done. And now I find out that he picked somebody who’s my age and he literally fixes his entire schedule so it revolves around her.” 

Deep down he knew that Marinette had nothing to do with any of his feelings of hostility. But he pushed those thoughts away and settled for making her the culprit. 

There was absolutely no way that he was ever going to get along with Marinette Dupain-Cheng. 

* * *

“I mean seriously!” Marinette huffed as she opened another box. She and Audrey were in the building that would soon be the headquarters of Style Queen Paris. They were currently taking inventory of everything that had been delivered in the past couple of days. “Who does he think he is?” 

“I’ve known Adrien for years, my dear,” Audrey stopped digging through the box she had just opened and instead leaned against it. Marinette stopped what she had been doing, more interested in what she was going to say now. “He’s a good person and a very talented model.” That wasn’t what she wanted to hear. “Gabriel Agreste may have influence behind the scenes but Adrien has his own connections that his father doesn’t. And I can assure you he worked hard to get those.” 

“That still doesn’t excuse what he said to me,” Marinette’s anger dissipated just a little bit. Audrey did agree with that statement easily. “I just don’t appreciate the fact that his face is plastered all over the city while some of the models I worked with New York have been doing their work for years and get barely any recognition.” 

“Being a model is more than what it looks like on the surface,” Audrey walked over to Marinette, picking up a stack of papers from on top of one of the boxes on the way there. “It requires poise and elegance and a certain likability factor that not everyone has.” She handed her the couple of sheets that were on top of the pile. “And you, my dear, are in charge of finding one of those people for our first teen issue.” 

“I get to do the cover?” Marinette’s smile grew in excitement as she looked down at the papers. There were references and people she was to work with scribbled all over the sheets in Audrey’s handwriting. 

“You’ll have to report back to me, of course, and get everything approved but yes, you’ll be in charge of our cover story,” Audrey smiled a bit when she threw her arms around her. 

Marinette’s mind had shifted from Adrien to her upcoming project. Deep down though she still had an odd feeling about him. She hadn’t told Audrey every detail of the brief couple of moments she had had with him and she wasn’t planning on telling her. All Marinette knew was that Adrien for some reason didn’t like her and so far hadn’t made an effort to even try. And if he wasn’t going to, well then neither was she. 

There was absolutely no way that she was ever going to get along with Adrien Agreste.

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone wants to know more feel free to shoot me an ask/message on tumblr! (@my-bugabooo)


End file.
